New Gest controller wants to swipe aside your keyboard and mouse

As the computer world slowly looks to move away from the traditional keyboard and mouse, more ideas based around gesture control are emerging, and Gest is the latest such invention to get funded on Kickstarter.

Gest is essentially a 'control glove' but without the glove – instead of a full glove, this controller consists of a large sensor strapped around the palm, which has wires running to small bands around each finger.

It's designed to be light and also comfortable, with the palm strap being adjustable, and the finger mounts are mouldable.

Once donned, you can use Gest to control your computer using gestures such as swiping, grabbing, or pointing. There are a large number of possible actions that can perform different functions, so you can for example point with one finger or two fingers to trigger different options in the UI.

It's possible to set up custom gestures, and indeed the device learns how you perform each gesture and adapts accordingly to make it more accurate in terms of reading an individual user, lessening the amount of errors which occur.

There are 15 discrete sensors in each hand, with finger tracking boasting a latency of around 50ms for a swift response and better accuracy.

Like all gesture control systems, doubtless it will feel pretty weird when you first have a go, but the demos of Gest shown on its Kickstarter page (spotted by Coolest Gadgets) show that this invention has some potential particularly when it comes to things like 3D modelling – and of course virtual (or augmented) reality, which should be hitting it big next year.

Gest doubled its funding goal on Kickstarter hitting $200,000 (around £130,000) and the device is expected to start shipping globally come November 2016 priced $199 (around £130).

Also check out: Holo is a gesture-controlled hologram player